


Pyra: Explain what's up

by rarmaster



Series: don't you worry child [12]
Category: Kingdom Hearts (Video Games), Sonic the Hedgehog - All Media Types, Tales of Graces, Tales of Symphonia, Tales of the Abyss, Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (Video Game)
Genre: AU, Crossover, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-27
Updated: 2020-10-27
Packaged: 2021-03-09 05:27:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,735
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27219403
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rarmaster/pseuds/rarmaster
Summary: Pyra explains what's up.Or, all of Team A meets.(DYWC)
Series: don't you worry child [12]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1414204
Comments: 2
Kudos: 7





	Pyra: Explain what's up

**Author's Note:**

> aera: what if… weird soup abyss jade  
> me: [throws 500 words out] yes
> 
> anyway two of three characters here are from an AU so you can check out those deets [here!](https://rarsneezes.dreamwidth.org/24351.html?style=site), and also we have character profiles now, it's a work in progress, but almost everyone in this fic has one! check those out[HERE](https://dywc.dreamwidth.org/)

Colette sits by the edge of the little lake out here in the grassy hills. They’ve been here for a while now—her, and Silver, and Sora. Her driver. She’s still not sure what to make of him, but the hour or so she’s known him probably isn’t long enough to make any kind of calls. She aches for home, though; for her brother, for her _Lloyd._ She hopes that whatever power brought them here can be resolved quickly.

But first.

There’s a ping of ether that crosses her senses— _several_ pings, actually. The first feels exactly like an Aegis, but doesn’t taste like the ether signature of any Aegis she personally knows, which is weird, because she knows all of them. The second makes Colette’s head snap that direction, for how strong it is; it doesn’t _feel_ like a blade, but the power level must be nearly on par with herself. It’s like a beacon of raw energy, and it’s…

She gets to her feet, and Sora asks her what’s up, confusion touching the emotion bleed, but Colette ignores him as she tries to piece out what she’s feeling. The third signature is also strong, though it’s like a campfire compared to a raging inferno. And it’s… familiar, except for the fact it lacks the icy tang she expects it to.

There’s a fourth, too, she realizes as they approach—heading right towards them—but this fourth is like a candle; very faint, an echo of the subtle ping that Sora gives off.

The approaching group crests the hill.

Colette forgets how to breathe, for a second.

They are not who she wanted to see, exactly. But she recognizes three of four faces, and the fourth makes Sora light up with joy.

“Namine!!” he shouts, delightedly, and then—“You know Joseph, right?”

The girl Sora called Namine is nodding rapidly. “Your boyfriend’s name is Kano—”

“Yeah, yeah!” Sora says, and whatever that settled between them results in Sora sweeping Namine up in a hug while she laughs. The emotion bleed drowns in fondness and relief—more akin to what Colette would feel when reunited with Zelos, she thinks, than Lloyd. Sibling or friend, then, and not partner.

That just leaves the other three. Colette isn’t sure where to start, but Pyra— _since when was Pyra an Aegis, and how is that the least weird thing happening right now_ —says “I’ll give you guys a moment to introduce yourselves, then we can talk business!" and cheerfully takes a step back, so. Colette guesses that makes her decision for her.

She looks at Jade. She looks at Sophie. Neither of their ether signatures sing like a blade’s should, and neither do they seem to recognize her.

She steps forward, anyway, as they finish descending the hill.

“Jade?” she asks, just to be sure.

He blinks. “Hm?” His tone is inquisitive, politely confused, but his smile is as smug as always. “Sorry, do I know you?” he asks.

Something in Colette’s core breaks, even though she expected this. She takes her disappointment and shoves it somewhere where it can’t ruin Sora’s moment. She swallows.

“No, I don’t think so,” she tells Jade, her tone carefully polite. His ether is all wrong, and there is no way he could have forgotten her, so.

“Oh, my reputation just precedes me, then,” Jade says, taking it in stride. He sighs like this is some great ordeal, though he hasn’t stopped smiling. Typical of him.

Colette clears her throat, traces the scars on her core crystal to ground herself. “It’s… not quite like that. I recognize Sophie too, but…”

“You do?” Sophie asks, pleasantly surprised. She seems even more wide-eyed about the notion than she normally does.

“It’s…” Colette begins, but isn’t sure where to go.

“Sounds like parallel universe shenanigans,” Sora says, coming up beside Colette on her right. He sends her a winning smile. “I mean, that’s why I asked Namine straight off if she knew who Joseph was, and all that. Wanted to make sure we were the Sora and Namine we expected each other to be.”

Jade adjusts his glasses, and then looks Colette up and down. “Let me guess,” he says. “You know Mythra?”

Colette blinks. “Probably not the same Mythra…” she begins.

“No, but that’s the thing, I think it is,” Jade explains. “Because I met Mythra, briefly, as well as another Jade. So this isn’t my first brush with—” he raises his hands for air-quotes, “—‘parallel universe shenanigans’, and seeing as you’re a blade, I think it adds up.” He raises his eyebrows, eyes darting towards Sophie. “You say you recognize Sophie too? Interesting. Is she friends with your Jade, as well?”

Niece, friend, blade-of-Jade’s-partner, it’s all the same thing, really, and not Colette’s place to get into specifics. “Yeah, she is,” Colette says, and leaves it at that.

“Interesting,” Jade repeats. “Sophie and I aren’t even from the same world. We’ve just run into each other before.”

“So you know her, Uncle Jade?” Sophie asks.

“No,” Jade answers. And then, to Colette: “What’s your name?”

“Colette.”

“They never mentioned you.”

Colette shrugs. This one stings, even though it shouldn’t. “I’ve only known them for a few years,” she admits. “So if you met them before that…”

“Possible,” Jade agrees.

“Do you know Asbel…?” Sophie asks, looking curiously up at Colette. Architect, the strength of Sophie’s ether slapped against her senses is apparently going to _keep_ giving her whiplash, that’s fine.

Colette swallows, shakes her head, feeling bad about disappointing. “No,” she says, and then offers: “I know Malik.”

“The Captain!?” Sophie absolutely _lights up_. “Wow, you have the Captain in your world, too?”

“Jade and Mythra still living at the bar with him?” Jade asks, giving Colette whiplash of a completely different fashion.

She scowls, not certain this is her information to divulge.

As she hesitates, Silver comes up on her left. “Hey, shouldn’t we do introductions, or whatever…?” he asks. Then he laughs, kind of nervous. “Man, this- this is a lot of people?”

Jade double-takes, which speaks of just _how_ surprised he is, considering Jade. “Oh,” he says, not quite startled, but close.

“ _Whoa_ ,” Sophie says, similarly surprised.

“What, y’all never seen a hedgehog before?” Sora jokes.

“Not like this,” Jade answers. Sophie doesn’t answer at all, too busy stepping forward to examine Silver closer. He doesn’t exactly look like he enjoys this, but he doesn’t move, either, just sniffing kind of exaggeratedly and squinting, hand raised halfway to rub the back of his head.

Sora starts introductions to save Silver from any more embarrassment, and there’s some intrigue about him and Namine knowing each other that gets lost to Sora trying to explain to Jade why a talking hedgehog is totally normal, while Silver and Sophie start striking up some kind of bond.

Colette lets the noise fill her and pass through her, not paying it much attention, content enough to let Silver be the center of attention, though she feels somewhat bad. She’s appreciating the time to process, though. It’s weird… meeting someone she knows, but who doesn’t know her. She’s grateful in a way that it’s only Jade and Sophie—though she considers them _friends,_ she doesn’t consider them _close._ The thought of Lloyd or Zelos being here and not recognizing her, or worse, _Martel…_ She doesn’t want to think about it.

She ends up meeting eyes with Pyra across the crowd, and thinks about how strange it is, because in her world, Pyra is _definitely_ not an Aegis.

Pyra catches her looking, and gently makes a motion for Colette to come talk with her, so Colette extricates herself from the hedgehog-focused conversation—not difficult, though Sora _does_ look to her long enough to see where she’s going, which she guesses means he cares? Namine watches her too, for a second, but eventually turns back to the conversation, holding Sora’s hand, when she sees Colette head for Pyra.

“Hey,” Pyra says, gently.

“Hi,” Colette says back.

“You okay?” Pyra asks.

That’s not a question Colette wants to get into with Pyra.

“Fine,” she says, and then: “I’m sorry, but… You’re an Aegis?” There’s really no delicate way to ask it.

Pyra laughs, soft in a way that manages to ease Colette’s tension. “In this world, yes,” she says. “We’re pretty far from yours.”

Yeah, Colette figured that. “Can you just… summon Aegises indefinitely?” she asks. Somehow, that doesn’t seem like it should be _allowed_.

“Oh,” Pyra says, and her smile gets apologetic. “It’s—Colette, listen. You’re not… exactly… an Aegis in this world.”

“What.”

“You should have noticed a change in how you interface with this blade system when you arrived…?”

Colette thinks to how she very definitely needs a driver, right now, when she didn’t back home.

“Oh.”

“Your power levels and your ability to manipulate ether shouldn’t have changed!” Pyra reassures her, quickly. “But you won’t be able to interact with the laws of this universe in quite the same way. That’s for me and my siblings, I’m afraid.”

Well, Colette probably wouldn’t have been able to do anything without Zelos, anyway, so that’s fine, and she’s more distracted by the reminder that Pyra has siblings, and that Colette knows all of them. Interacting with Mythra will be weird. Interacting with _Malos_ will be worse, and she hopes she can avoid it. A Malos who didn’t recognize her would be…

“Why are we here?” Colette asks, instead of dwelling on that.

Pyra smiles at her, in what Colette reads as placating despite the genuine spark in Pyra’s eyes. “Here, I’ll tell everyone at once,” she says. “Come on.”

And she moves towards the group, calling for everyone’s attention. Colette follows.

“Alright,” Pyra says, “You’re all probably wondering why you’re here.”

“ _Where_ we are is also a good question,” Jade adds.

“I’ll explain that in a second, too,” Pyra insists. “The short of it is we need your help locking up some kind of cosmic horror.”

Sora grimaces, the emotion bleed sparking with discomfort. “What… kind of cosmic horror?” he asks, and Colette can almost _feel_ his thoughts turning dark.

“Uh, the world eating kind.”

Sora and Namine exchange looks. Namine squeezes Sora’s hand.

“Like… the Heartless?” Sora asks. Only Namine seems to understand what he means.

Pyra takes a second, eyes going distant. Probably accessing some databank. “Not quite,” she says, finally. “Or—not the Heartless. Kind of similar though. Except if this one eats a world, there’s no getting it back.”

“We’re a long way from home if no one here knows what a Heartless is,” Sora mutters, to Namine, who echoes agreement.

“What do you want us to do?” Silver asks, his voice suddenly much more serious. “If it means a world as beautiful as this staying the way it is, I’ll do anything.”

Pyra smiles, looking fond. “The good news is you don’t have to much at all. We’ve gathered about thirty of you, set in teams of five or so. The energy you collectively output when moving and existing in this space—without having to do anything other than exist in it!—will eventually, if we map the route right, lock up the cosmic horror.”

Colette understands what Pyra is proposing here, but doesn’t quite understand how it’s going to work. Can ether signatures positioned in a specific way really make a change like that on a universe?

Everyone else seems similarly lost, except Jade, whose face has gone still with concentration.

“…does our specific movement within a world matter?” he asks.

“Oh!” Pyra says. “No. It’s, here—”

And she projects a map into the air before them. Jade takes a step closer to examine it, and Colette does as well. It’s mostly just dots scattered throughout a three-dimensional space, but as Pyra speaks, it keeps illustrating.

“When you move between the worlds…” A line draws between two dots. “It’s that specifically that we’re looking for. See?” And through the dots a pattern starts drawing, something complex, looking arcane, if Colette had the word for arcane. ( _Jade recognizes it as adjacent to a fonic glyph._ ) “All we need to do is write this pattern into the universe, and we can stop what we’re trying to stop.”

“Hm,” Jade says, and then: “What if this world-eating cosmic horror eats a world?

“Well…” Pyra lest the simulation show a world vanishing, and the pattern fraying along with it. “It _does_ break up the code. We can patch it. Sure, it may involve sending you back through worlds you’ve already seen, but we _can_ patch it.” Maybe there’s unease, or maybe Pyra wants to just head that unease off: “Don’t worry! It’ll work. We’ve calculated this about a million times—which is our job—and we’ve got both the best answer and several backup answers, and can always calculate a new route depending on changes that happen. The only thing we’ll lose if a world gets eaten is time.”

“Isn’t it a race, though?” Jade asks. “Eventually we could lose enough worlds that you can’t draw a pattern at all.”

“We should have plenty of time before that happens,” Pyra insists. “Trust me, we’ve calculated this. It’s going to work out just fine.”

“How are we gonna get to other worlds?” Sora asks. “I don’t have my star shard.”

“We’ll open portals for you, don’t worry,” Pyra answers.

“Then should we get moving?” Jade asks. “The less time we waste, the better.”

“Yes, but,” Pyra says. “The time you _spend_ on the world matters too, so…”

“Ah, so we just have to wait until the time is right to move on.”

“Yes.”

Jade shrugs. “Well, I’ve had to do worse.”

“Sorry,” Pyra says. “I promise, when this is done, we’ll return you back home to the exact moment you left, so it’s like you never left.”

“I still don’t really understand what we’re doing,” Silver says. “We don’t have to fight the monster? Shouldn’t you at least tell us what it looks like?”

“It doesn’t,” Pyra answers. “It doesn’t look like anything. It just eats.”

“What do we do if we run into it?” Sophie asks. “Can we beat it up?”

“If you run into it, myself or one of my siblings will get you out of there immediately. There’s no killing it. Believe me, we tried.”

“Which is why we’re locking it up,” Jade says.

“Exactly.”

“I still don’t get how this works,” Sora says, scowling. “I mean, I guess it’s just a weird magic thing, and I should leave it at that, but…”

“It honestly sounds like you’re trying to program a computer,” Namine suggests.

“I mean it is literally just ACE,” Pyra admits. “Er, arbitrary code execution? Yes, it works on universes, too.”

“Your terminology is missing me a bit, but…” Jade shrugs, still unbothered. “I mean, I had Luke brute force write instructions on a Sephiroth tree to get it to lower the land, this honestly isn’t all that weirder, just slightly more unorthodox.” After a pause, he adds. “I’m assuming that if there was a more direct route to pull this off, you’ve tried it already?”

“Yes,” Pyra says. “And it didn’t work.”

“And you can’t access the core of the universe and write changes from there?” Colette asks.

Pyra shakes her head. “We can really only access the memory of this universe,” she says. And then she grimaces. “Well, it’s more like… we can only affect changes on the memory, in this state.” Another grimace. “And technically we _are_ writing changes into the core…” She trails off.

She thinks on something for a moment, like she can’t quite put words to the thought.

“Listen,” she says, finally. “When I say this is going to work, I mean it. And when I say it’s the safest, most direct option, I mean that, too. Me and my siblings were built to calculate things like this. We have the situation under control.” She smiles, more apologetic than winning. “You just have to play along.”

“Fine by me,” Jade says, unbothered. Sophie nods along with him.

“I still don’t _get_ it,” Silver says, “but I said I’d do anything, so.”

“Yeah, I’m game,” Sora agrees. He looks fondly to Namine. She shrugs.

“You need us specifically, right?” Colette asks Pyra.

Pyra’s smile is much more apologetic, now. “Yeah,” she says.

Colette sighs. “Then I’m ready,” she says, as if she has a choice.


End file.
